The spiritual center of Japantown's commercial district is minimalist master Yoshiro Taniguchi's Peace Pagoda. It was donated by San Francisco's sister city of Osaka, Japan in 1968. Presented with this five-tiered concrete stupa, San Francisco seemed stupa-fied about what to do with it. Over the years the city clustered shrubs around its stark nakedness, drained leaky reflecting pools and paved over surrounding gardens. Finally, with cherry trees and boulder benches restored to the plaza, the pagoda is in its element, au naturel.
